The garbage truck team outside was lively, with the keepers of the Black Armored Elephant chattering away in the back, excitedly discussing their experiences of the day.

“Wow, what a show…”

“Are all the people from the Alliance and the Three Mountains and Seven Families really here?”

“Our Lin family sure has face!”

Lin Qinghen overheard all of it.

Aside from selling medicine, he hadn’t realized just how bustling things had become outside before he left today.

With Lin Qingshuang about to turn eighteen, Lin Zhongtian was hosting a grand banquet for his precious daughter, attracting the top forces from across the continent to Dong Tian Mansion. Naturally, it garnered a lot of attention.

In the vernacular, these top forces were referred to as the “Alliance, Three Mountains, and Seven Families,” terms that Lin Qinghen had only read or heard of before. This was the first time he had a tangible sense of their presence.

The “Alliance” refers to the Spirit Masters’ Alliance. In Lin Qinghen’s eyes, this wasn’t exactly a “force” per se; it was more akin to a governing body that maintained basic order on the Spirit World continent.

Every city has its branches of the alliance, with various departments providing functions like strength testing and registration for Spirit Masters. There are also mercenary guilds that publish bounty tasks, while the alliance also undertakes some economic functions, such as minting currency. The 1,000 Spirit Coin chip he earned today bore the alliance’s seal.

The “Three Mountains” represent the Suyue Immortal Mountain, known for combat-type Spirit Masters, the Fuxin Hall, where alchemists and artifact makers congregate, and the Bai Lu Zongheng, the continent’s leading commercial guild. Their headquarters happen to be built against mountains, hence the name “Three Mountains.”

Lin Qinghen hadn’t met anyone from the Suyue Immortal Mountain, but he had seen the other two.

The Bai Lu Pharmacy was the first pharmacy he visited today, and it belonged to Bai Lu Zongheng, which attempted to take advantage of him.

Within Fuxin Hall, there are subdivisions: alchemists belong to Fuxin Hall, while artifact makers belong to Miaofa Hall.

The little girl who came looking for her dog today had subtle patterns in her sleeves, indicating she was from Fuxin Hall.

As for the “Seven Families,” they were generational clans that passed down their legacies. These seven families are at the pinnacle of spiritual marrow inheritance, with the Lin family as a representative.

Among the Seven Families, three specialize in combat, two in support roles, and one each in alchemy and artifact crafting, making for a fairly balanced distribution. Some families have poor relations with the Lin family, so not all of them might show up this time.

The Lin family had been developing quite well in recent years, subtly gaining the upper hand among the Seven Families. Lin Qingshuang had already reached the rank of Earth Level Eight Star half a year ago and was renowned among the younger generation for her talent, with a promising future ahead.

From Lin Qinghen’s perspective, this birthday banquet served to confirm the family’s status and was somewhat of a display of power.

However, when it came to notable figures of the younger generation, aside from Lin Qingshuang, another person came to mind.

This person’s name existed in the original host’s memories, but he had never met him.

When Lin Qingshuang tested her talent at three years old, it was said that she was rare in this world, but she was still a line behind Yin Jiuxiao of the Yin family.

—Yin Jiuxiao, that fallen genius.

Having been confined to his own small corner of the Lin family, Lin Qinghen didn’t know much about the outside world.

Eleven years ago, when the Yin family encountered their calamity far away in the North State, he could only hear vague news. After the incident, all he heard were dry mentions of the “high morality of the Yin family,” which only deepened his impression of the world being full of crises, pushing Lin Qinghen to bury himself even deeper within the Lin family.

However, before the Yin family’s incident, the classification of top forces should have been “Alliance, Three Mountains, and Eight Families.” The Yin family, being the leading family in this sacrifice for righteousness, received only a thin amount of gratitude after the disaster and soon fell into decline, which was quite lamentable.

This time Lin Qinghen ventured out, it seemed he had touched upon the shifting tides of power on this continent.

The outside world was vast. With the System in hand and a swirl of memories in his mind, he couldn’t help but think more.

He daydreamed on the back of the Black Armored Elephant as the garbage truck made its way back, stopping at the planting garden.

Lin Qinghen pulled himself from his thoughts, just as he was considering checking on his two acres of newly sprouted Round Wheat and picking out the reddened ones.

However, as he approached the door of the formation leading to his two acres, he saw someone there.

The person was squatting on the ground with a lamp in hand, illuminating Lin Qinghen’s nursery field.

Who discovered it?

He felt a tightness in his chest, but once he got a good look, he relaxed completely.

“…Master?”

Lin Qinghen called out.

He recognized the person as Yu Yinyin.

Yu Yinyin seemed stunned when she heard his voice, then turned to look at him. Her gaze was intense, filled with complicated emotions, as if she didn’t quite know how to start the conversation.

However, once Lin Qinghen recognized her, he was merely surprised and not particularly afraid.

This place didn’t belong to him; it was designated by Yu Yinyin. His master lived a simple life and seemed indifferent to everything. After designating this area for him, she had hardly come to check on it.

Finding her here was somewhat expected.

Regarding the System, it was hard to explain. If she noticed the Round Wheat, Lin Qinghen wouldn’t have any reason to hide it.

He wasn’t worried that Yu Yinyin would harm him. After spending over ten years together, he could clearly see that.

As he stepped closer, Yu Yinyin finally managed to ask, pointing at the Round Wheat seedlings. Her voice trembled slightly, “This… you honestly say, where did you get this?”

Today, Lin Qinghen had actually left her a note, but Yu Yinyin happened to have missed it.

This girl had fallen and hit her head a few days ago, and after waking up, she seemed a bit off. She was slightly worried when she hadn’t seen him all day. In the evening, after thinking it over, she decided to come here to check.

Then, she witnessed a rather shocking scene.

Although this patch was still filled with immature seedlings, just one glance made it clear this was no ordinary sight.

This was the first time she had seen Round Wheat begin to mutate when it had only grown to the height of a palm, and the density of the red seedlings here was astonishing—at least one in ten were like that. More importantly…

“I grew these myself,” Lin Qinghen explained to her. “I’ve been busy with this for the past few years, and it seems I’ve had some success.”

He even attempted to explain the principles of hybridization and genetic modification to Yu Yinyin, but she didn’t quite understand. However, she seemed to grasp something, her expression turning strange as she struggled between laughter and tears. “Just… a bit of success?”

She took a deep breath, her emotions fluctuating more than they had in the past ten years. “Lin Qinghen, I think you don’t truly understand what you’ve grown.”

“What do you mean I don’t understand? It’s Round Wheat!” Lin Qinghen replied sincerely. “It’s just a bit richer in spiritual energy, shorter mutation period, and a bit higher yield, that’s all… right?”

But as he looked at Yu Yinyin’s face, he started to feel something was off, and his tone shifted to uncertainty.

Yu Yinyin tried to calm herself down, “Even if it’s just seedlings, these few mutated Round Wheat are no longer three-star. This one—no, all of these… they’re all four-star, every single one.”

Four-star mutated Round Wheat!

It had been years since she had seen anything capable of surprising her to this extent.

She had greatly underestimated this child she had casually nurtured. Lin Qinghen was far more extraordinary than she had imagined.

“Ah?”

Now it was Lin Qinghen’s turn to be astonished.

This wasn’t entirely his lack of skill; whether it was elixirs or spirit plants, identifying and grading them was a highly specialized skill that required extensive practice. A naturally talented Spirit Master might pick it up easily, but Lin Qinghen could not.

Grade assessment requires a certain level of spiritual power, at least at the same level as the object being assessed or higher.

At present, Lin Qinghen was at Yellow-Level Two, so he could sense that the Round Wheat he grew contained more spiritual energy and performed better than others, but he couldn’t articulate how much richer it was or how much better it was overall.

He had tested the elixirs on a chicken before, but the chicken couldn’t give him feedback!

In any case, this was the first time he learned about breaking through the grading.

Yu Yinyin stared at him, still somewhat in disbelief, “If this is used for alchemy…”

Lin Qinghen felt a jolt in his heart.

Following this logic, it seemed the elixirs he refined weren’t as simple as he had imagined.

His theoretical knowledge was extensive. He knew that if the primary material was four-star, even if the supporting materials weren’t that good, the resulting elixir would still be four-star. The primary material determined the final product—that was an unchanging rule.

What Yin Jiuxiao could ponder in the inn, Yu Yinyin and Lin Qinghen could also think of at this moment.

Yu Yinyin’s expression grew increasingly serious. “Qinghen, this matter is more significant than you realize. You need to tell me honestly, does anyone else know about this?”

Lin Qinghen hesitated, “Um…”

How should he put it?

He had just sold two bottles of elixir, and there was no going back. Even if he now realized that what he had produced broke some norms, after thinking it through, he had no regrets.

Compared to himself, his usually aloof master seemed far more excited. Lin Qinghen even keenly sensed that her spiritual energy was becoming unstable, vibrating in tune with her emotions.

Although Lin Qinghen still lacked the clear identification ability for things with higher spiritual power than his own, he felt for a brief moment that the energy radiating from the excited Yu Yinyin was a bit too overpowering, seemingly far beyond Earth Level One Star.

But it was only for a moment.